How to Save Time and Money with a Collaborative Construction Data Management Platform

As an architecture and urban design practice, O’Mahony Pike has designed and delivered residential and commercial projects in Ireland for over 25 years. The practice creates quality places for living and working, which positively contribute to our communities and the built environment.

122

projects run on PlanGrid

6,312

drawings uploaded

116k

photos recorded

The Need for Digital Construction Management Tools

The introduction of the Building Control Amendment Regulations (BCAR) in 2014 across Ireland required O’Mahony Pike to provide tracked inspection records to confirm compliance with the building regulations to the Building Control Authority, Assigned Certifiers, clients, purchasers, and end-users. The business had previously relied on taking photos and manually creating reports with Excel and exporting to Dropbox but wanted a digital tool to more easily meet the requirements of the BCAR.

With the business continuing to grow, O’Mahony Pike decided to look for a solution that would not only support greater productivity within the inspection team, but also enable improved communication and collaboration with clients, design teams, and contractors.

“We faced a serious risk of communication errors, such as if the client used an outdated version of a file or couldn’t find what they were looking for. We did have occasions where contractors couldn’t get hold of the right report to close out issues, delaying the final completion.”

–Richard Burke, Architectural Technologist

How to Choose a Construction Data Management Platform with Greater Collaboration

In 2016, O’Mahony Pike chose PlanGrid within Autodesk Construction Cloud™ to support their Ancillary, Design, and Assigned Certifier services. PlanGrid eliminated all of Excel and Dropbox’s problems while offering a wide range of additional benefits.

The inspection team uses the platform to log issues directly onto drawings, including notes and images tagged to locations on the drawing. It’s easy to create custom reports with low effort, including PDF checklists that can be shared with clients, general site reports or full inspections. As needed, the team can import tags from previous drawings and access past revisions, which are clearly labelled, for comparison.

“PlanGrid has an incredibly intuitive user interface. Unlike other platforms, you don’t get bogged down following rigid protocols, which means it’s straightforward to introduce to a new user. I’ve been able to introduce colleagues to the basics of PlanGrid within 10 to 15 minutes, and they then head straight to the site to conduct inspections. But beyond the top-level functions, there are lots of nuanced tools in PlanGrid that have been very valuable for us.”

–Richard Burke, Architectural Technologist

How Construction Data Management with PlanGrid Supercharges Productivity

After two and a half years of using PlanGrid, O’Mahony Pike has significantly seen its inspection teams’ productivity increase.

PlanGrid has helped to engage the inspection team, removing some key frustrations from their working lives. PlanGrid balances ease of use with powerful functions and appeals to everyone, from less digitally experienced colleagues right through to the BIM manager.

The team at O’Mahony Pike is extremely pleased with how PlanGrid has performed and is now looking to build on the success. For instance, they plan to standardise how the overall office uses the solution and integrate it with their ISO processes.

With so much success to date, O’Mahony Pike intends to expand their use of Autodesk Construction Cloud, including BIM 360 and other tools, to integrate processes across the project lifecycle.

“Where previously we had to send inspection teams around together or have one inspector complete every check, now two or three inspectors can visit a site at once and add notes to plans at the same time, with everything synced back to the cloud. It’s helped to speed things up and improve collaboration in the business.”